Fremantle’s “predictable” ball movement has come under the microscope, with Justin Longmuir’s side facing a defining six-week period before the mid-season bye.
The Dockers slumped to a 2-4 record for the season following a 49-point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium on Friday night, which will leave them at least a game and significant percentage outside the top eight by the end of the round.
Fremantle will travel to Brisbane next week to take on the Lions at The Gabba, before a match against Hawthorn is followed by clashes with Sydney at the SCG, Geelong and Melbourne.
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The Dockers’ loss to the Dogs was punctuated by passages of conservative ball movement, which former Hawthorn and Melbourne star Jordan Lewis told Fox Footy was “the easiest ball movement possible to defend against.”
“You can just see no Western Bulldogs players are really exerting any energy, they know where it’s going, Jones can set up down the line … it’s a real issue.
“There’s other parts of their game that are suffering as well, but if you can’t move the ball in this day and age against teams who practice all pre-season, year after year how to defend, it’s just too hard to score.”
Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon said the trend of boundary-heavy ball movement was alarming, particularly when the Dockers gave up as many points as they did on Friday night.
“That’s the most points they’ve conceded in two years. Their ability to go forward and convert inside 50 looks like a real issue, as it has been all year,” Lyon said post-match.
“We said at three-quarter time, the profile of their ball movement from the back … they go ‘No, I’m not going down the middle, I’m going to go boundary’.
“Teams that go to the boundary generally do it so they protect their goals on turnover, but at three-quarter time they’d still given up over seven goals on turnover in their forward half anyway. Where are they? What are they?”
The issues paint a bleak picture for Longmuir, who began coaching at the club in 2020 but now faces an uphill battle to repeat last year’s finals appearance.
Lewis said the Dockers’ troubles could go deeper than simply Friday night’s loss.
“I think there’s no ability for the players to actually think for themselves and read the game and read the patterns,” he said.
“It seems to me like it is (too rigid). It seems to me like they want specific decision makers in specific positions to make the same calculated decisions at the risk of getting scored against.”
Brisbane Lions premiership great Jonathan Brown said the ground ball numbers painted an even more alarming picture for Fremantle.
So far this season, the Dockers are the worst side in the competition for ground ball differential, with a total of -95, while in Friday’s loss they lost the ground ball count 81-114.
“It’s the number one problem for the Fremantle Dockers this season … four Bulldogs players had more than 10 ground balls individually tonight. For Fremantle, one: Serong with 16, the next best with nine,” Brown said.
“Not enough Fremantle players are just getting out to that loose ball and chasing after it. Too many passengers in that part of the game.
“Justin Longmuir would be looking at that thinking we’ve got real issues with this, we’ve got to fix it up. It’s a hard thing to turn around, but it comes back to a bit of intent as well and obviously system.”
